Sundowns are improving with every game, says coach Manqoba Mngqithi

Mamelodi Sundowns have scored 10 goals without conceding in their past three matches but coach Manqoba Mngqithi says they are not yet at the level they are want to be.

Eight goals were scored over the two legs against Eswatini minnows Mbabane Swallows in the Champions League final preliminary stage and the other two were netted against SuperSport United in their Betway Premiership opener.

This is a huge turnaround from the scoring challenges they faced during matches against Polokwane City and Stellenbosch in their respective MTN8 quarterfinal and semifinal matches, where they failed to score.

Firing blanks against City and Stellies led to questions about Mngqithi’s new style of quick transitional play from certain quarters of their hard to please fans.

“I would not be sure whether everybody has brought into it but whoever has bought into it is going with it,” said Mngqithi on their new style of play as they prepared to face Marumo Gallants in their Betway Premiership clash at Loftus on Tuesday afternoon (5.30pm).

“We are happy with those who can see the light but the good thing about them is they have realised it has a lot of goals for them. When players start to confess on the sides that, ‘I think this season we are going to score a lot of goals’, you get excited.”

Mngqithi spoke about the importance of players buying into the system for it to succeed and there is another opportunity to get better against Gallants who come to Pretoria under early season pressure having lost their opening league matches against Kaizer Chiefs and Golden Arrows.

“They must have the buy in first and then we must try to drive towards that direction. Now the atmosphere, attitude and mentality towards what we are trying to achieve is clear.

“Every player understands what we are trying to do but in terms of the system we [are] not at the level where I want us to be. We are still playing in moments, we are not consistent in our football actions and our positional play sometimes is questionable.

“We are improving in every match and we are hopeful competition we are trying to bring into the group is also going to fast-track the desire to play the way we want.

“It is also going to go down to who does what we are looking for, so that he is in the starting 11 whenever we need hm.”